A Difference of Perspective
by Danny vs A Month
Summary: What if 2B had been more open to the machines having emotions? What if she hadn't been hit by the EMP? What if 9S hadn't been so weak?
1. Chapter 1

I do not own NieR: Automata or any of the characters.

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Liberation

2B stared at the machines in silence. Behind her, she could hear some Resistance member that she didn't care about telling 9S what he was going to do with his new machine, in this case he was talking about dunking it in the water just to watch the sparks fly. Her stomach rolled threateningly. Oh how the mighty had fallen. She, who had slain more machines than her scalp had hairs ten times over, as unable to stomach hearing an android talk about killing machines.

She turned, looking to 9S, who could instantly tell that something was wrong, despite her emotionless mask and the cloth over her eyes. He excused himself from the conversation and walked over. The other android walked away, leaving the pair in the room alone with only themselves and the machines behind 2B, all of whom were in a cell like prisoners, or slaves. She supposed this was fitting, since that's exactly what they were.

"What's wrong?" 9S asked.

"I want to help them," 2B said quietly.

"The machines?" 9S asked. "Why?"

"Because...please don't make me say it," 2B said. "I know you know. I can see it in your face every time you hack one. You can feel it."

"Feel what?" 9S asked.

"Their emotions!" 2B snapped. "All of them. They've got emotions. And lying to ourselves and pretending they don't won't change anything. They're like us, just with different bodies."

"And most of them are trying to kill us," 9S said.

"But these ones aren't," 2B said.

"So they _weren't_ shooting at you a minute ago in that arena?"

"That's not their choice!" 2B shouted before forcing herself under control. "They need help, 9S. Please. Help me save them."

9S sighed. "Alright. What do you need me to do?"

"I need the androids distracted," 2B said. "And all of them need to be in the coliseum."

"Okay," 9S nodded. "I can do that."

He walked away and 2B began to wait. She could feel her body tensing. She frowned. Maybe there was something wrong with it. Finally, it began. The first thing to happen was a scream. Then, several androids shouted. She peeked out the door, seeing everyone running up the stairs toward the coliseum with swords or spears. She waited another couple of seconds before slashing the lock on the cell door, breaking it open. She pulled it open and the machines stared at her.

"Well?" 2B said. "Let's go before I come to my senses!"

The machines didn't hesitate another moment. In seconds they had rushed out of the cell, grabbing weapons from the pile that they were allowed to use in the coliseum, then sprinted for the door out. They were on their way up the elevator by the time 2B had reached it, 9S at her side.

"Did they get out?" 9S asked.

"Yes," 2B said. "They'll probably have to kill the android at the top, but they got out. What did you do?" She could still hear the sounds of battle, and the screams of several androids as they were damaged, or worse.

"I, uh, hacked the robots in the arena and remotely upgraded their motor functions and runtimes. They're all cut off from the network down here, and I made sure they couldn't return to it. But I also gave them what they'd need to at least distract the androids for a while, though probably not to escape."

2B nodded. "Okay. Let's head back to the resistance camp. Anemone said she needed to see us a while ago."

9S nodded and 2B summoned the elevator. Once at the top, they found two dead machines and the android, who had been stabbed but wasn't dead yet.

"Which way did they go?" 2B asked.

"I'm not sure," the android said. "It all happened so fast. I'm not really even sure it was me that killed those two."

"I see," 2B nodded. "We'll try to find them."

She dropped a repair kit beside him and ran away from the door, 9S just behind her. As they ran and slid their way across the sand toward the transporter, 2B scanned the desert around them. There should have been hostile machines by now. There was always at least one group waiting to ambush them. Finally, they reached the transporter. However, just as 2B reached out to it, a barrier appeared around it. She spun, drawing her katana just as machines began to burst out of the sand around her and 9S. These were the same she was just saved. She recognized a few by the gashes and dents in them. But there were more than she had saved. They had clearly recruited a nearby group. She raised the blade but the machine in front dropped its sword, the others doing the same.

"Wait," the machine said. "We do not wish to fight. You saved our lives. We only wished to thank you."

2B lowered her sword, but kept herself ready. "What will you do now? Return to the network?"

"A few of us want to," the machine said. "They will share the knowledge that not all androids are enemies with the others, as well as the freedom of being able to think for yourself. But the rest of us don't want to. We want to live a peaceful life. We're tired of fighting."

"You could join Pascal's village," 9S said. "He's over between the amusement park and the forest zone. You could go to the amusement park too, I suppose."

"Thank you," the machine said. "We have to go now. Good luck."

Then, they all burrowed back into the ground and the barrier around the transporter faded.

"I hope we don't come to regret this," 2B said.

"So do I," 9S said. "But whether we regret it or not, it was still the right thing to do."

2B nodded and activated the transporter, heading back to the resistance camp. She waited beside the transporter for 9S to step out, and once he had, she turned, walking toward Anemone.

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	2. Chapter 2

I do not own NieR: Automata or any of the characters.

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Lost

2B slowly pushed herself up, her system's struggling to reboot, her vision shaking and glitching to static and back several times as her system's struggled to auto-correct themselves. Finally, it finished and she straightened up, looking around. 9S was nowhere in sight.

"Pod, can you locate 9S?" 2B asked.

"Negative," Pod said. "Proposal, check the resistance camp for a way to track Unit 9S's black box signal."

"Okay," 2B nodded, turning toward the resistance camp.

She sighed. She could hardly believe things had gone so wrong so fast. At first, things had been fine. Anemone had asked them to protect a ship at the Flooded City, then from there, the commander had ordered them to take a pair of flight units to defend another chip out to sea. They had done well, quickly clearing the skies, only for a gigantic machine bigger than the ship they were protecting to arrive. It had instantly destroyed the ship, and when they tried to fight it, they found it had several EMP generators, as well as energy shielding over its entire body. Eventually, 9S had used a missile to destroy it, but the resulting explosion had thrown her away while also sending out one final EMP that had scrambled her systems, and also most likely scrambled 9S's.

She made her way quickly to the resistance camp, walking into it and over to Anemone. Anemone smiled as she saw her. She excused herself from the conversation she was in the middle of, walking over.

"2B, you're alive!" Anemone smiled. "I was so worried. Where's 9S?"

"I was hoping you could actually help me with that," 2B said. "I need a scanner that can detect weak black box signals."

"I see," Anemone nodded. "I think the twins were working on something like that. They should have just gotten back as well. They're a pair of red-headed android twins. Female. I think they're over that way."

She gestured in the general direction of the supply vendor and 2B nodded, thanking her and walking away. She found the sister's easily, both sitting with the vendor, their own goods spread out a short distance from his.

"Hello," one with straight hair greeted. "I'm Popola, this is my sister Devola. How can we help you?"

"I need a sensor that can detect weak black box signals," 2B said.

"Oh, I remember working on something like that a little while ago," Devola, who had messier hair than her sister, said. "Here. You can have it."

"Thank you," 2B said, accepting the program chip. She held the chip up to Pod, who accepted it and then inserted it in the chip slot in its body.

"Detecting weak Black Box signals nearby," Pod reported. "Proposal, investigate the signal."

"Right," 2B nodded, following the directional data Pod had uploaded.

She ran through the camp quickly, leaving it behind and checking the map for the briefest of moments before sprinting to the edge of the crater and flinging herself off of it. She fell fast, rapidly speeding past several small flat areas that easily served as pathways, the machines there looking over at her before turning back to the front, wandering around once again. At the last second, she finally caught Pod's hands, Pod slowing her fall until it did little more than kick up dust. As soon as she landed, however, two spots on the ground broke apart, large worm-like machines made out of what looked like magnetic spheres with spinning saw blades around them flew out of the holes, moving toward her, both with a massive drill on the front of their heads.

2B sprinted forward, drawing her sword and leaping into the air, flipping over one drill and slamming the sword into the machine, only for it to bounce off. She flipped, landing on the ground and watched as the machines continued. They moved slowly, but they were long and already annoyed her.

"Scanning machine lifeforms," Pod reported. "Enemy core found. Proposal, try targeting the highlighted sections."

A single segment on each worm seemed to glow as Pod highlighted it for her and she held her hand out, Pod moving to hover over her shoulder and firing its machine gun. The bullets mostly bounced off, but as she watched, any shot that hit the highlighted segment dented it. She allowed Pod to stop firing and sprinted forward, leaping over the first worm's drill again. This time, she grabbed her larger sword and slashed the highlighted section as she fell past. The sword hit hard, but managed to slice all the way through. Electricity raced over the worm's body and the segments all broke apart, crashing down around her. She leapt away from them as they exploded, then rolled as the other worm passed over her. As the highlighted segment began to pass over her, she jumped, slashing up through but failing to cut all the way through this time. She flipped, spinning as she fell and bringing the sword down on the segment, slicing through it with ease this time. The worm once again broke apart and exploded, and 2B turned, running toward a massive pit on one side of the crater. She swapped her larger sword for the lighter one as she neared the pit and leapt off, once again falling most of the way before catching Pod. Before her, a short tunnel to the right led to a small empty alcove, and a tunnel in front of her stretched far underground, but was dark.

Pod activated its light and 2B spotted several small machines, all of which turned toward her. She sprinted forward, cutting her way through the machines rapidly, oil and bits of metal spraying into the air with each slice, some coating her, not that she cared. It was far from the first time. Once she had slaughtered that group, she turned to follow the tunnel deeper only for a pair of round hovering machines with large drills on top of them to float out of it, only to also die. 2B was far less slow or careful than she and 9S had been the first time she had followed this tunnel. Before, it had taken her nearly twenty minutes to reach the fork she soon found herself at. The first time, Pod had directed her to continue straight, leading to another twenty minutes of sneaking through the tunnel, at the time expecting unknown alien creatures to jump out at her. The aliens had been dead, however. She had found it odd, at the time, that she was almost disappointed that she didn't get to fight the aliens. It _was_ what she was made for, after all.

Now, though, she turned right at the fork, thoughts of aliens, and disappointment, and any form of stealth the furthest thing from her mind. Her sword rang as it tore through the machines, whose parts crashed loudly to the ground. And then most, though sadly not all, of those ignited into a fireball as they exploded. Under normal circumstances, 2B found it oddly satisfying to make machines explode. Less so after the incident at the coliseum. Now, though, 2B didn't care about the explosions any more than sneaking. Every single function she had that couldn't be devoted to saving 9S had been set to standby. Later she would probably have to run a system's check to discern why his absence and possible endangerment had had such a strong effect on her, but for the moment, that level of processing was also on standby.

Every thought was of 9S. How to repair various types of damage. Where to locate her emergency parts stash. The fastest and most efficient way to disable any machine between herself and 9S. She even had a gauge in her head for the approximate amount of time that it would take to carry a wounded 9S back to the surface and call for an emergency evac to the Bunker, in case his data couldn't be uploaded, for some reason.

Finally, 2B reached the end of a tunnel, finding an elevator. After a wait that she deemed entirely too long, she stepped into it, slamming her hand into the down button and waiting, once again, entirely too long. The door slid open and 2B was out of it before it was even halfway, sprinting down a street toward 9S's signal. Pod commented on the fact that the machines had recreated a human city out of some white substance, and left large white cubes sitting around, but 2B wasn't paying his useless comments any mind, so he began to record their surroundings for later use.

At long last, they came to a courtyard where 9S's Black Box signal was coming from. She stopped, looking around, only to watch a flash of light as Adam appeared before her. Unlike the last time they had met, when he had been wearing only black pants and his black glove with the red claws, this time he also had on a white shirt with a black scarf and a pair of glasses. Once again, 2B ignored these insignificant details.

"Where's 9S?" 2B demanded.

"He's here," Adam said, raising a hand and making part of the building behind him open, revealing 9S with a white spikes piercing through his hands, which were stretched out to the sides, his right forearm, each foot, his left inner thigh, the right side of his waist and just above it at an upward angle to exit just below his shoulder blade.

"9S!" 2B shouted, rage filling her. "I'll kill you!"

Adam laughed, dozens of white blocks floating around him. "Will you? you see, machines are all connected to a vast network. We are immortal. The concept of death holds no meaning for us. So I decided that I would risk my life in battle."

The blocks fell to the ground.

"I've severed my connection to the network," Adam said as 2B sprinted forward. "Let's embrace d-"

He stopped, hurling himself to the side as Virtuous Dignity stabbed into the wall, passing through the space he had previously occupied. As 2B followed Adam, slashing at him rapidly, Pod retrieved Virtuous Dignity, transforming it back into data and placing it back with the rest of 2B's weapons data. Finally, Adam jumped, golden light forming around him and launching him down at 2B in a kick, only for her to step aside, slashing him as he passed. He landed hard, staggering to the side and holding a hand to his wound. It wasn't life-threatening, however, and when 2B moved to stab him from behind, he spun, light enveloping his foot and blasting her backward.

Her sword stabbed into the ground between them and Adam smirked, reaching out toward it. Before he could, Pod's body opened, turning so that the inside was facing him and firing a laser as big around as his chest. Adam's arms snapped up, a barrier appearing around him and blocking the laser. Then, 2B reached him with her sword in hand, slashing. Adam blocked it with his right hand's claws and punched her, knocking her backward several feet. 2B screamed in rage, charging and slashing at him, Adam stepping out of the way, only for 2B to turn, slashing with her larger sword using her left hand. He grunted in something like annoyance or anger, a pair of arms made out of light appearing from either side, one blocking the sword and the other punching 2B. She bounced across the room, crashing into a wall, then stood, holding out her hand, both sword flashing and reappearing behind her. She once again drew her smaller sword and charged. Adam smirked, light completely covering him before shooting into the air, extending into something like a worm. It reached into the air, then fell at 2B, only for her to dodge aside. Then, it spun, blasting into her from behind. She flipped, glancing down at her dress, seeing that it was hanging off of her in pieces. She ignored it as Adam laughed.

"Come now, don't tell me all that rage has gone," Adam said. "I could always impale 9S on even more spikes."

2B shrieked in response, sprinting forward. A blast of light the side of Adam's entire body shot off of him at 2B, but she leapt over it, landing on her feet and ducking under a punch from him, driving her sword through him, just too far to the side to hit his spine. He staggered backward a step, one hand catching her head to steady himself, the other her shoulder.

"Is this...death?" Adam asked, voice barely more than a hoarse whisper.

2B shoved her sword deeper until the guard was agains him, then twisted sharply and dragged it across his body and out, severing his spine and stepping past him, sprinting away from him as he collapsed. As he did, the spikes holding 9S in the air broke apart, allowing him to fall. 2B dropped her sword, Pod collecting it for her as she caught 9S.

"9S!" 2B said. "Hold on!"

"2B?" 9S whispered.

"Hold on!" 2B pleaded. "I'll get you out of here!"

9S managed a weak nod before going limp in her arms. 2B sprinted away from the courtyard, back toward the elevator. She really didn't want to have to ride in it, but didn't have any other choice. Once the door was open, 2B was off, sprinting through the tunnel once again.

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